I have always loved taking photos and sharing them with anybody that is interested. I am interested in nature and history and like to research the subject of the shots that I come away with. My current camera is an Olympus Stylus 1s.

Monday, 13 October 2014

Lackford Lakes in Suffolk

On a recent visit to the UK we stopped for a quick look around Lackford Lakes run by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. As the name suggests it's main areas of interested are the many varieties of birds that are attracted to the lakes as well as many, many butterflies and dragonflies, at the right time of year.

Next to the carpark is a visitors centre where you can get information packs on what you may be able to spot around the site, a cup of tea and a cake to break up your visit and they also provide wheelchairs for disabled visitors.

These chairs were looking out through the large window to a small pond, so you can sit and wait and see what will be attracted by the water and the various plants around it.

Because we were only here for a short while on this visit we chose the path that leads off to the right of the visitors centre.

There are many hides dotted around the lakes giving you a good place to set up your camera and wait for the birds to arrive. This particular lake is popular with the beautiful Humming Birds, and a couple of branches have been strategically placed for them to perch on, but as you can see, during my short sit in the hide not one came near. Oh well I hope to visit again next spring, when I will have more time to sit and wait.

There was a Moor Hen swimming about, having a mid morning snack so I did manage to get a few nice shots of that.

I loved the little strut it did across this particularly dense area of reed.

This fungus growing on the branch of a tree is known as Jew's Ear, Wood Ear or Jelly Ear, due to the ear like shape of the fungus and the brown colouration. The fungus can be found growing on live or dead wood, in temperate climates, throughout the year.

We could hear the chatter of these geese long before they flew over head.

These small, shiny, red berries can be found on the Guelder Rose Tree, also known as Water Elder, Cramp Bark, Snowball Tree and European Cranberry Bush.

This bush is also one of the national symbols of Ukraine.

As I said at the beginning of this post, when we were at Lackford Lakes in July there were so many butterflies and dragonflies around that you had to be careful where you stepped as they were all over the grass on the pathways. Having said that they were still a challenge to photograph as they never stay still for more than a moment.

I did manage to photograph this European Peacock Butterfly. It is found in Europe and temperate Asia.

This little fellow is a Common Blue Damselfly also known as a Common Bluet and Northern Bluet. It is common in all of Europe except for Iceland. You can tell this a male as the female is a light buff brown colour.

In this next picture I managed to get a shot of a male and female Common Blue Damsel fly locked together during mating. You can clearly see the difference in colour between to the sexes.

Here I photographed one of the butterflies from my childhood, the Red Admiral, it was the first butterfly I remember identifying as a child, as they were very common. They can be found in temperate Europe, Asia and North America.

As we look across one of the lakes you can see a platform in the middle with some birds sitting on it.

With my camera set to its maximum zoom I can just make out that they are Cormorants. These birds can be found all around the world.

And of course a lake would not be a lake with out the presence of the graceful Mute Swan. It can be identified by its all white plumage, orange bill bordered with black and the pronounced knob atop of the bill. These birds are native to Europe and Asia.

Unfortunately this is a poor quality picture of an incredibly difficult to capture Banded Demoiselle, which is a species of damselfly.

This spider sat in the middle of its web that it had strung between the branches of a bush, I am not sure what sort of spider it is.

This was the only one of these Comma Butterflies that I saw on our visit. They are also known as Angel Wings because of the irregular shape of their wings. They can be found in Northern Africa and across Europe.

Just some of the flora and fauna to be seen around the lakes.

This dragon fly perched on a branch over the edge of the lake looks a like a Blue dasher dragonfly, part of the Skimmer family.

As were turning the corner of the path that was following the edge of one of the lakes we came across this group of Canada Geese, could these have been the ones that flew over head earlier? I was expecting them to waddle of when they heard us approach.

But no, they were quite happy for us to walk along with them. Most of the are male with the black head, white cheeks and black necks, but you can see a couple of females at the back with grey heads and necks.

A close up of one of the males.

Here you can see where they have flattened the undergrowth to create a walkway giving them access to the lake.

Here are one or two more shots from around Lackford Lakes, if you ever get the chance to pop by for a visit you must. I am looking forward to going back in the spring.

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About Me

I am interested in Nature and History. I like taking photos of what I see and experience around me and finding out about what I have seen. As a result I also do a lot of reading mainly historical or factual.